RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM The University of Hawaii Warriors football team cheered yesterday after performing the ha'a before the start of the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Warriors’ ha‘a gets national audience

NEW ORLEANS » The last time Hawaii came to Louisiana, the team was flagged for doing its ritual pregame dance and incited anger among a hostile crowd that responded to the Warriors' arm-slapping moves with similar, more vulgar gestures of their own.

"I think they got mad," Hawaii defensive lineman Michael Lafaele recalled of the team's visit to Louisiana Tech. "That's why they played us so hard."

That game, played in Ruston, La., in September, went to overtime before the Warriors pulled out one of their closest victories in a 12-0 regular season.

Hawaii's invitation to play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl yesterday gave the Warriors a chance to show the dance and accompanying chant, called the ha'a, on a national stage.

"We take a lot of pride in that, especially the local boys," said Lafaele, a native Hawaiian. "It's something that's a part of us. Growing up, that was our culture."

International rugby fans know a Maori war dance, called the haka, well. New Zealand's national team (the All Blacks) performs it before games. So do rugby teams from some other Pacific island nations.

But Hawaii's Polynesian version with the slightly different name is relatively new to most of America, only now becoming familiar to college football fans as Hawaii draws more interest by virtue of all the winning the Warriors have done lately.

So perhaps people who've never seen it before could be excused for wondering whether they just saw something offensive, especially if some of the younger players from the mainland didn't perform all the moves quite right.

"We tell them to make their arm straight," Lafaele said, demonstrating by punching one arm out and slapping his other hand on his biceps.

"Don't go like that," he added, evoking laughter as he demonstrated a similar motion with his arm bent at the elbow and his hand slapping a little lower on his arm.

Each year during fall camp, on their own time, veteran players teach it to new ones.

"It's different, it's one of those things that brings us together," said Hawaii linebacker Adam Leonard, who's from Seattle. "It gets you excited to play a football game. That chant really gets your blood flowing and gets you ready for a physical sport."

At Louisiana Tech, Hawaii players were told not to do the ha'a on the field, so as they were walking up a hill toward their locker room, they found what they thought was a fitting spot -- where everyone could see them. Referees flagged them for taunting because Tech players were still on the field.

Now Hawaii performs the dance on a sideline facing its own fans.

On Monday night, the Warriors waited for Georgia players to leave the field after warmups before getting in formation near the 40-yard line, facing their own sideline. Thousands of Hawaii fans in that section of the Superdome went wild.

"It's not a way for us to taunt the other team or call the other team out," Lafaele said. "We're not trying to scare them or instill any fear in them. It's just for us, our pride and our culture."

Hawaii is no longer the only team that does it. Leonard said he's heard of other college and high school teams who have players of Samoan or Polynesian backgrounds including dances similar to the ha'a as part of their pregame routines.

Scenes outside the dome

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Kapono 'Ai of Maui, wearing Hawaiian warrior gear, partied outside the Superdome in New Orleans yesterday before the start of the 2008 Allstate Sugar Bowl between the University of Hawaii and Georgia.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii and Georgia fans were silhouetted against the evening sky as they entered the Louisiana Superdome for the game.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Willie Gonsalves, left, Jerome Kupuka'a, Mike Gueso, Clint Gueso, Mel Bernard and Jordan Bernard were decked out to spell the name of their home team outside the Superdome yesterday before the game.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Calvin Mirafuentes of Nuuanu gave his best Hawaiian greeting as he waited outside the Superdome.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Bronson Gouveia, 9, put on his Warriors game face underneath a protective helmet.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Kaneohe resident Ramsey Lambert showed his Hawaii pride.